Houston Texans General Manager/Executive Vice President Rick Smith
(on the Texans’ biggest needs heading into 2012) “First of all, coming off the season that we came off, and having the success that we had for the first time for an organization, you go back to the drawing board again no different than you did every year before. It’s a very honest assessment of where we are, where we feel like we’re strong, where we think we need to improve. And when you look at those areas, I think the wide receiver position is a position where we might strengthen our team. You can never have enough corners. I know I always say that. Pass rushing is a premium. I mean, it’s pretty standard. We look for guys that make plays, that impact the game. We can never find or have too many players that impact the game, whether you’re talking about a pass-rusher or guy who can take the ball and make a play with the ball in his hands.”

(on if he will draft with the best-player-available approach) “We always do. We stay true to our board and that’s not a philosophy that we’re going to alter because I think it gives you the best chance to have success. If you assess value and you follow the value of your board and don’t stretch for need, because I think that’s where people make mistakes. We’ve not done that before and I would suspect that we stay true to that philosophy and not do that in the future.”

(on if it is impossible to align the team’s priorities until figures out what it’s going to do with OLB Mario Williams) “No, it’s not impossible. Not at all. We’ve assessed our team. Obviously, there are variables that you always have to adjust to but I think we understand what we have and where we need to go and then you adjust as the process plays itself out.”

(on how he approaches players who have issues off the field) “It’s a function of research and trying to get to know the player. We take a position that we don’t penalize a player or kill a player because he made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. What you don’t want, you don’t want repeat offenders because that will indicate something that’s maybe a deeper issues. We won’t just take a player off of our board for character reasons if he makes a single mistake. If there is repeated, repetitive behavior that suggests something different than that, then we become a little bit more concerned and that’s what this process is about. That’s what the process that our scouts have been evaluating these players over the last few months, so we’ll take all that information and assess how comfortable we feel or where we feel that there is a risk more so than another. Character is important. It’s always been important. I think again, I’ve said a lot, where you see that is in the fourth quarter. When you’ve got players that (have) quote en quote ‘character,’ what does that mean? That means that they’re disciplined, they execute when they’re supposed to execute. If you’ve got a team full of players who have that discipline in the fourth quarter, in the big time in the game where the pressure is at its height, those guys with discipline tend to continue to do the things that they need to do in order to perform and execute and continue to be successful.”

(on if he takes a hard look at someone with first-round talent who has had two or three transgressions rather than discarding that player) “In my opinion, it’s all about the value. It’s how assess the risk. How much value are you going to place on a player or how much risk are you willing to take compared to where you think his behavior (is).”

(on if he’s reluctant to put the franchise tag on RB Arian Foster and if he thinks more restricted free agents will now get the franchise tag with the new CBA rules) “Obviously, it’s way too early to determine or to predict a trend. We are having all of those conversations and discussions, without revealing too much of what our thought process is. We will use every available option that we have and try to do, we’ll try to make the decisions that give us the best chance to impact our team overall. Whether we’re talking about a Mario (Williams), an Arian (Foster) or a Chris Myers or whoever we’re talking about with respect to our guys that we would like to sign back that are in some form of free agency, whether it’s restricted or unrestricted. What we’re trying to do is put together a game plan together that gives us the best chance to have the best overall football team.”

(on if there’s any regret that the franchise tag number is so big with the new CBA deal) “No. First of all, I don’t live in regret that way. I didn’t write the deal. It’s function of the first pick in the draft. It’s a function of the timing of going into the last cap year. There’s a number of nuances and variables that impacted and affected that deal. It was what it was and we had to deal with it. Mario (Wiliams) is a great player and we want him to be a part of our football team and our organization, so we’re working hard to figure out a way to get that done.”

(on if he anticipates more contract restructuring to help with the team’s salary cap situation) “Yeah. We have to. That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to look at some deals and restructure some contracts and try to get as creative…I’ve challenged (vice president of football administration) Chris Olsen to come up with as many available opportunities that we have. The goal is to build the best football team that we can build.”

(on the process of restructuring the Texans’ defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4) “In the sense of a transition from a 4-3 to a 3-4, it started actually a couple weeks ago a year ago, when we hired (defensive coordinator) Wade (Phillips). Meeting with our scouts, sitting down with Wade and talking to him and getting a real idea of what he was looking for; watching a ton of tape with him and the defensive coaches and gaining some insight as to what type of player fit into the defense and then going to the Senior Bowl and corralling the scouts and talking to them. Making sure that everybody understood what we were looking for. And then just going through the process and again, staying true to the value that we placed on players. We were fortunate. We were fortunate that J.J. Watt turned out to be an excellent football player. I think he made more impact plays than anybody thought he would. We knew he would be a great player but I don’t think anybody knew that he would make an impact on a game as much as he did. That was certainly something that was nice and then the second round pick with Brooks (Reed). So we did some things. We were able to come together as a group and identify the players that fit the system and the scheme. And then we were fortunate as the Draft kind of fell that we were able to pick some players that were good for our system.”

(on what he looks for in developing a college player into a 3-4 outside linebacker) “I think the first thing is pass rush. Is there some sort of natural pass-rush ability is what you look for. Then you look at the athleticism. Then you look at what type of football instincts and all the other things that kind of come on. One of the things we put a premium on is pass rush. And you mentioned the projection; when we made this transition last year, we did not have one linebacker on our team, whether you talk about a Brooks Reed or any other player, or Mario (Williams), any of them that had played in that position. They were all projections. We were fortunate. Even projecting (Brian) Cushing inside was a projection. It worked out for us. I think have to say that in that context of our defense and the way that they performed, in light of how we handled adversity and injury through the year, I cannot say how effective a job our coaching staff did. I mean, it was impressive to watch those guys week-in and week-out get the team ready regardless of who was going on the field and had them out there executing on a high level. That’s a testament to the job Gary (Kubiak) and his staff did.”

(on if he’d be more aggressive trading up in the Draft if the opportunity arose now that his roster depth is as strong as it’s been) “Yeah, all of those things. Just because we haven’t done it doesn’t mean we haven’t run the exercise and thought about it and all of those kinds of things. It’s just that we have not been in the situation where it was proven to do it. We will still entertain any, and I’ve always said this, we will entertain any opportunity we can, whether it’s moving up or moving back to better our football team. Those moves, as you know, are expensive. You’ve got to make sure that if you’re going to do something, whether you’re talking about moving up 10 spots or however far, you’ve got to make sure that you’ve got a player that’s worth whatever the value is of the move. The last time we had this pick, we didn’t start the Draft with the 26th pick. We started I think at 20 and we moved back with Baltimore and traded back to 26 and picked up an extra third round pick. So we’re always moving and we’re always entertaining those options and if it’s something that we think will help us, then we’ll do it.”

(on this year’s draft class) “I tend to stay away from overall evaluations of the classes. I think that when you look at players, what we look for in that group, I guess I’ll stay specific to that, is guys that make plays on the ball. I think that that’s a premium. Turnovers are a premium in this League to the degree that you have a group of players in your secondary that can make plays on the ball. I think that’s what Johnathan Joseph, one of the things he added; Danieal Manning, they added that element to our secondary. And there are some players in this class that have that ability.”

(on if there is a level of influence from an assistant coach that can be too much in a draft selection regarding a player’s success or failure because he put his name on the line) “I think that’s the responsibility of whoever is in charge of running the draft. I don’t think that’s specific to coaches. I think scouts will have the same type of affinity for a player. You want that. You want conviction in the draft room. You want people to step up and say ‘This guy can makes plays for us.’ It’s a matter of the decision-making process at that point to weight the opinion, to weight how significant that drives the decision. But you want people with conviction in your draft room and then it’s just a matter of making sure your process is set up such that like you said, it’s not skewed, but it falls into line with everything else that you make a good decision.”

(on if he had to push the envelope with injuries playing OLBs Connor Barwin and Brooks Reed as much as the Texans did and how much the Texans need a third outside linebacker) “Pass rushers are premiums. You need as many as you can get, so we were fortunate in the sense that both of those guys were healthy the entire year and we had some production from both of them. But you can never have too many pass rushers. You can’t.”

(on wanting OLB Mario Williams to remain a Texans) “Yeah. I think we’ve been very clear. They’ve been very clear that we would love to have him here. And I don’t talk a whole bunch about negotiations publicly, but I think that there is no doubt that all the parties involved know what the desire is and that’s for him to be here.”

(on the chances that the Texans make moves in free agency as big as they did last year) “You know what, and again, this goes back to philosophy; we feel like it’s prudent to build through the draft and that’s our philosophy, and then you supplement via free agency. I think you’ve seen that over the years in what we’ve done. I think we were obviously a major player in free agency last year and so if we are staying true to form, I would anticipate that we would not be as active this year. Again, if there’s an opportunity for us to get better and we think that it’s by free-agent acquisition, we’re not going to be shy about doing it. I would not expect that we would be as active as we were last year unless an opportunity presents itself that way.”

(on if there is something you can gain from watching “throwing quarterbacks” at the Combine, as the Texans did with QB T.J. Yates last year) “I think what you get here is you get an athletic grade and you get an opportunity to talk and get to know the guy a little bit better in an interview setting and all the testing. The body of work is what he does on tape, especially at that position. But you can see his arm live. You can do some things if you hadn’t had a live exposure or any kind of view. You can see some of those athletic things. But really, you’ve got to use the body of work, a guy’s playing resume on tape. That’s where we put the most emphasis on our evaluation process.”

(on if something stood out about QB T.J. Yates at last year’s Combine) “First of all, you look at the offense that he ran and how similar it was to ours. You looked at the competitive way he led his football team in the face of a ton of adversity. You looked at his ability to be accurate with the football, his ability to make all the throws. He doesn’t have a super gun, but he’s got a strong enough arm to make all the throws. You start to look at all those factors and you got excited about the guy and we really did. We’re fortunate and the job that he did was pretty incredible for a young guy to come in and lead the football team like that in the games late in the year and win a playoff game and to go on the road the way that he did and compete. Those are some of the things that you saw from him just from a competitive standpoint and a playing standpoint and what he could do physically that you said, ‘Hey, this guy might have a chance to be pretty good in our system.”

(on not drafting for need but making his first five draft picks defensive players last year) “Yeah, but again, when you hit the homerun, and I guess I would consider J.J. (Watt) to be a homerun, where you hit the homerun is as you stack your board and assess value. If you can pick a player at the corresponding spot that is a position of need, that’s a homerun. So you don’t go into the Draft saying ‘I’ve got to get this. I’ve got to get that,’ because, in my opinion, if you do that, you are inclined to reach and take a player that doesn’t meet the value. It’s not that you don’t select players in positions that you need. The key is that they have the corresponding value at the point where you are picking and if you do that, and you can hit a player at a position of need at the value spot, then you are good.”

The No. 1 overall pick in 2006, Williams was Kubiak’s first draft choice with the Texans. He has a team-record 53 sacks over the last six seasons, including five in 2011. If not for a Week 5 season-ending pectoral injury, the Texans think he could have contended for the league lead in sacks in his first year under defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.

“Mario’s part of the growth of this organization when we started back at the bottom what six years ago,” Kubiak said. “Was a great draft choice for our organization; has played extremely well. Was playing at the top of his game under Wade’s system, playing the outside linebacker. So we think a great deal of Mario as a player and even more as a person. He’s been wonderful for our team and our city.”

Foster, an undrafted free agent in 2009, is coming off back-to-back Pro Bowl seasons. He led the league in rushing in 2010 and finished fifth in 2011 despite missing three-and-a-half games.

“Arian’s a three-down player,” Kubiak said. “It’s hard to find backs in the league nowadays that never leave the field. Arian never leaves the field. His hands, what he can do catching the ball can be just as dangerous as he can running it, in a lot of ways. He’s very smart, excellent in protection schemes and what he does.

“Arian’s been exceptional for our football team, and yet he’s been very unselfish, too. Arian played without talking about numbers and contracts. Arian held up his end of the bargain last year as a player, and there’s a lot to be said for that, the way he stepped in and did his job.”

Myers and Brisiel have been overshadowed by Williams and Foster in free agency speculation, but they’re an integral part of the Texans’ success in the running game. The Texans ranked second in the NFL last season with a franchise-record 153.0 rushing yards per game. Myers made the Pro Bowl, while Brisiel was named captain of the USA Today “All-Joe” Team.

“They mean a great deal,” Kubiak said of the two linemen. “Up front, we’ve played the same five guys for almost two or three years now in a row, and I think that’s why we’ve made so much progress.

“Chris is the leader of the group. He makes all the calls. He’s been exceptional for us. We got Chris for a sixth-round draft choice a few years ago, and (offensive line coach) John Benton’s done a great job developing him. Mike Brisiel as well. Mike was a free agent that John did a great job of developing.

“The key in this business to being good in the long haul is holding people together, so we’ve got that situation on our hands with those two players, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep the group together moving forward.”

(on not drafting for need but making his first five draft picks defensive players last year) “Yeah, but again, when you hit the homerun, and I guess I would consider J.J. (Watt) to be a homerun, where you hit the homerun is as you stack your board and assess value. If you can pick a player at the corresponding spot that is a position of need, that’s a homerun. So you don’t go into the Draft saying ‘I’ve got to get this. I’ve got to get that,’ because, in my opinion, if you do that, you are inclined to reach and take a player that doesn’t meet the value. It’s not that you don’t select players in positions that you need. The key is that they have the corresponding value at the point where you are picking and if you do that, and you can hit a player at a position of need at the value spot, then you are good.”

Rick, Let Wade continue to pick the defensive players and Gary pick the offensive players. You proved your drafting ability when Gary had the elective surgery and you were the main guy at the combine. Thanks for the KJ/OkOye picks.

Continue on with your figurehead position and let the cap guys do their jobs. As a guy with a position on the competition commitee I would like to thank you for the many rules changes that are ruining the game I love. How did you get a place on the competition commitee to begin with? Were you qualified? What are you qualifications to be on such an important panel?

Rick, Let Wade continue to pick the defensive players and Gary pick the offensive players. You proved your drafting ability when Gary had the elective surgery and you were the main guy at the combine. Thanks for the KJ/OkOye picks.

Continue on with your figurehead position and let the cap guys do their jobs. As a guy with a position on the competition commitee I would like to thank you for the many rules changes that are ruining the game I love. How did you get a place on the competition commitee to begin with? Were you qualified? What are you aliqufications to be on such an important panel?

He is McNair's boy and Bob has great influence or at least the czar doesn't want to piss him off unnecessarily.

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I want to be able to recognize the difference between a "want" and a "need" and then I want to be satisfied with getting a need

Rick, Let Wade continue to pick the defensive players and Gary pick the offensive players. You proved your drafting ability when Gary had the elective surgery and you were the main guy at the combine. Thanks for the KJ/OkOye picks.

Continue on with your figurehead position and let the cap guys do their jobs. As a guy with a position on the competition commitee I would like to thank you for the many rules changes that are ruining the game I love. How did you get a place on the competition commitee to begin with? Were you qualified? What are you qualifications to be on such an important panel?

The fact that Rick thinks KJ was the BPA is scary. I could name a whole host of players that were better than KJ. KJ was a reach becuase the Texans NEEDED a CB and Rick thought he was the best option.

Yeah, and I have a hard time believing that we picked the BPA on our first 5 picks last year and they just happened to all be defensive players...and coincedentally we just happened to sign a new DC and he needed to rebuild our defense. Imagine that!

I would'nt be so quick to believe everything that comes out of Rick and Gary's mouth.

Rick, Let Wade continue to pick the defensive players and Gary pick the offensive players. You proved your drafting ability when Gary had the elective surgery and you were the main guy at the combine. Thanks for the KJ/OkOye picks.

Continue on with your figurehead position and let the cap guys do their jobs. As a guy with a position on the competition commitee I would like to thank you for the many rules changes that are ruining the game I love. How did you get a place on the competition commitee to begin with? Were you qualified? What are you qualifications to be on such an important panel?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

The fact that Rick thinks KJ was the BPA is scary. I could name a whole host of players that were better than KJ. KJ was a reach becuase the Texans NEEDED a CB and Rick thought he was the best option.

Remember when KJ was picked, we had quite a different coaching staff feeding Rick Smith information. Most likely it was Frank Bush and his defensive staff that made this "BPA" assessment reguarding KJ; not Smith alone. The proof is in the difference between Wade's draft and Bush's draft. One can only guess who Wade would have selected in 2010.

Smith's forte' is snagging free agents. While he hasn't batted 1.000 (and who does?) he's done fairly well filling holes with guys off the streets. He'll do well to leave the draft picks to the coaches.

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Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. ...the players are always changing, the team can move to another city, you're actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it.

Rick, Let Wade continue to pick the defensive players and Gary pick the offensive players. You proved your drafting ability when Gary had the elective surgery and you were the main guy at the combine. Thanks for the KJ/OkOye picks.

Continue on with your figurehead position and let the cap guys do their jobs. As a guy with a position on the competition commitee I would like to thank you for the many rules changes that are ruining the game I love. How did you get a place on the competition commitee to begin with? Were you qualified? What are you qualifications to be on such an important panel?

So I guess Bob & Gary are "forcing" Wade to play Kj ahead of his own 2nd round draft choice? Maybe they're forcing Wade to play Kj, Allen, & McClain over his "hand-picked" 2nd rounder.

Or Wade didn't "pick" the players in the 2011 draft like we "presume."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doppelganger

The fact that Rick thinks KJ was the BPA is scary. I could name a whole host of players that were better than KJ. KJ was a reach becuase the Texans NEEDED a CB and Rick thought he was the best option.

How was Kj a reach, when there were two at that spot that would have agreed with "every" draft board publicly published at that time, Wilson & McCourty. Wilson would have been the most acceptable pick as he was "rated" higher by all the draftniks, but McCourty was the one that went to the Pro Bowl.

Smartest man in the room..... yeah, maybe that was Rick's problem, but reach? There were three corners available & Smith could have his pick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildroot

Yeah, and I have a hard time believing that we picked the BPA on our first 5 picks last year and they just happened to all be defensive players...and coincedentally we just happened to sign a new DC and he needed to rebuild our defense. Imagine that!

I would'nt be so quick to believe everything that comes out of Rick and Gary's mouth.

Because you don't understand BPA.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Smith

(on not drafting for need but making his first five draft picks defensive players last year) “Yeah, but again, when you hit the homerun, and I guess I would consider J.J. (Watt) to be a homerun, where you hit the homerun is as you stack your board and assess value. If you can pick a player at the corresponding spot that is a position of need, that’s a homerun. So you don’t go into the Draft saying ‘I’ve got to get this. I’ve got to get that,’ because, in my opinion, if you do that, you are inclined to reach and take a player that doesn’t meet the value. It’s not that you don’t select players in positions that you need. The key is that they have the corresponding value at the point where you are picking and if you do that, and you can hit a player at a position of need at the value spot, then you are good.”

Remember when KJ was picked, we had quite a different coaching staff feeding Rick Smith information. Most likely it was Frank Bush and his defensive staff that made this "BPA" assessment reguarding KJ; not Smith alone. The proof is in the difference between Wade's draft and Bush's draft. One can only guess who Wade would have selected in 2010.

I think he's doing more good than not, especially if Kj lives up to his spot in his 3rd year.

I'm not so sure Okoye was a complete "miss". Back in 2007 we still needed to give Mario some D-line help. Think about it - we were still hoping for Travis Johnson to come into his own and trying to get some mileage out of Jeff Zgonina for goodness sakes!. Okoye was one of the best DT prospects in that draft. The next DT taken was Harrell (GB) and he's not really done as well as Okoye did his first couple of years - I think he's out of the league. I took a look at all the other DTs drafted after Okoye and none of them are noteworthy.

This draft we can go more to a pure BPA approach because we don't really have any gaping holes to address. Anyone we draft - no matter the round - will have a tough time cracking the starting lineup.

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Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. ...the players are always changing, the team can move to another city, you're actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it.

One minute we're raving about the talent on this team.... the next minute were raving about the dumbasses that selected & developed that talent.

That is rather contradictory isn't it....

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Loyalty to any one sports team is pretty hard to justify. ...the players are always changing, the team can move to another city, you're actually rooting for the clothes when you get right down to it.

Rick Smith has not proven to be a good judge of potential NFL talent. As GM of the Texans, his overall record of drafting defensive backs has been surprisingly poor, especially since he was a DB himself at Purdue. To be fair, the credit for the success of last year's draft of Watt, Reed and other defensive players goes to Wade.

Remember when KJ was picked, we had quite a different coaching staff feeding Rick Smith information. Most likely it was Frank Bush and his defensive staff that made this "BPA" assessment reguarding KJ; not Smith alone. The proof is in the difference between Wade's draft and Bush's draft. One can only guess who Wade would have selected in 2010.

Smith's forte' is snagging free agents. While he hasn't batted 1.000 (and who does?) he's done fairly well filling holes with guys off the streets. He'll do well to leave the draft picks to the coaches.

Rick is the gm.

Going 3 for 5 on 1st rd picks= Fail

Letting Bush talk you into picking KJ when you played CB in college and you are the GM should be a firable offense.Does Rick spend time watching tape like Jerry Reese does? Or does Rick spend most of his time smoozing with BoB and the competition committee like Casserly spent with his NFL office buddies? Again what were Ricks qualifications to be on the committee again? Wasn't he a 2nd yr GM when he was appointed? Yeah he had really earned that prestigious position.

Rick is a teflon man. He says the right things and nothing ever sticks to him. But he's not very good at his job as GM. Which should be aquiring the best talent possible for the Texans. Just let Wade/Gary do his job and be done with it. But dont sit there and tell me your taking the BPA. When you're actually taking whoever Wade/Gary are telling you to take. (It's offensive) Look, Rick you've got a good place in life, dont over play your hand.

I hated working for bosses like Rick, all style no substance.

KJ wasn't BPA if you include the offensive and defensive side of the ball.